In this course, students will explore the dynamic interdisciplinary field of the “digital humanities.” In the spirit of many practitioners in the field, we will combine traditional humanities methods and concerns with hands-on exercises in making. To the former, we will read journal articles, book excerpts, and blog posts on a wide range of topics designed to introduce you to (in the words of Matt Gold’s pathbreaking anthology) the “debates” that have helped define the parameters, methods, and central concerns of DH. We will ask ourselves the much-contested question “what are the digital humanities” and will move beyond that fundamental and suprisingly complex question to ask about the field’s histories, epistemologies, methods, and some possible futures. To the latter, we will experiment with some basic ways of creating digital objects in the field through three low-stakes “praxis projects.” In these, we will experiment with mapping, with data visualization, and with text analysis. Don’t fret if these terms are foreign to you: this is an introduction and we will emphasize process and experimentation over product and expertise.
One final note: this is a fully remote course. We will meet weekly on Zoom, where we will do our best to replicate the warmth and dynamism of the face-to-face seminar. We will also (in true DH fashion) think about ways to collaborate and participate in intellectual exchange in other ways: blogging in this very space, reading collaboratively using the annotation tool hypothes.is, and others.
Course requirements: rigorous reading, informal writing (on this course blog), enthusiastic participation via Zoom, participation in group praxis projects and a final essay or project.
You can learn more about me here.
The header image depicts a punch card from the pioneering concordance of the work of Thomas Aquinas by the Jesuit Italian priest Roberto Busa. Busa spent more than 40 years creating the concordance using punch card technology in a project that still exists and proves useful to scholars. For many scholars, Busa’s work is a point of origin for the field of DH and movingly embodies the creativity and openness that DH practitioners aspire to.
